The Cat Burglar - 13. Kavan’s Bloodsong

Even though a heavy blanket covered me from head to toe, I was cold; my entire body shook with shivers. According to Doc, vampires can’t become sick, so why did I have the flu? Cautiously, I peeled one eye open. Ivory-colored curtains with old rose accents. I’d seen enough. Definitely not my room.

“How are you feeling?”

Konstantin. Forcing myself to sit up, I looked around. “Shitty.”

My sire put the book he’d been reading on the nightstand. “Doc said this was to be expected.” He got up and sat on the bed beside me, letting his gaze wander critically over me. “Do you want to feed?”

I shook my head no. “Where are we?”

“In our guest room. I didn’t want Doc to put you in his ward, but you needed someone to watch over you.”

“Cute design.” I let my head fall back on the pillow. “Especially the pastel green falling leaves.”

Konstantin snorted. “Yeah, yeah, I had to give her the guest room as a compromise.”

“And the throw pillows on the couch, if I remember correctly.” I groaned and closed my eyes. “Why do I feel as if I’ve been hit by a bus?”

“What do you remember?”

Preferably nothing. “Everything, I guess, right until Gideon decided to challenge Armin in the fighting cage. At first, it looked as if he could win, but then he had to protect the wolf from being shredded.” The horror was still very present in my mind of Gideon taking the first serious swipes. “I-is he dead?”

“The wolf is alive.”

“Gideon!”

“No. You intervened in a quite spectacular way.”

I remembered the panic I felt when Armin bent over Gideon’s body, ready to rip out his throat, and what I did. “I used my second gift to come up directly behind him and blindly rammed one of India’s knives into his neck.”

“And you chose well. That particular knife has been forged to fight Lykans. It’s able to nullify their power. How did you know to bring this weapon?”

”I didn’t. I just grabbed it at the last minute when I packed my stuff to follow Gideon to this pit— thing.”

“Interesting. Anyway, you killed the very Lykan Caspian and Gideon have been hunting for a very long time.” Konstantin grinned proudly.

Bit by bit my memory returned. “Gideon’s body was littered with wounds. I didn’t know what to do. His second death was upon him. I was so relieved when you and Caspian appeared. The mob would’ve killed us.” I grabbed Konstantin’s hand. “How did you find us?”

“Do you remember when I found you at your brother’s? You’re my One Childe; I can feel when you are upset or in danger. At first, I didn’t worry. I knew you were safely at home, but then I remembered you asked me about pits, and I immediately knew you followed Gideon against my advice or even order.”

I rubbed my neck; everything felt tense. “At first, I only wanted to watch Gideon leave.” Konstantin lifted an eyebrow. “Maybe follow him, see where he went. I briefly considered calling you, but he would have been seriously pissed at me for ratting him out, and we were only just on better terms after the Sina Beyer adventure. I had this, I don’t know how to explain this, sense, he might need me. I thought a second shadow melder wouldn’t hurt, and I could always call you from inside the place if the situation got dicey, but then I forgot. Everything was happening so fast.”

Konstantin folded his hands in his lap. “I wanted to inform Master Caspian about Gideon’s plan of taking down a pit all by himself right away, but to be honest, I didn’t believe he would try something this ill-considered, and there was so much to do; it got later than I realized. When I felt your agitation, I instantly knew you went against my advice, and I informed Caspian about what you told me and that you probably followed Gideon. He immediately alarmed the soldiers. I teleported us to the cave. He insisted I take him with me. We determined our position and called the waiting soldiers at the Spire and spoke to the Alpha of the River Bend Pack, who’s territory was close by, to take care of everyone who tried to escape.”

“Master Caspian dragged me over to Gideon and forced my blood between his lips.” Chills ran down my spine. “At some point, someone fed me disgusting blood from their wrist.” I still had the cloying taste on the back of my tongue. I shivered. “That wasn’t yours, huh?”

“No. What you tasted was probably the venom.”

My eyes widened. “The venom? What venom?”

Konstantin got up from the bed and began to pace. “Where is Doc? He promised to explain everything to you.”

Someone knocked softly on the door, but instead of Doc, Master Caspian entered. “Doc is still waiting for some test results.”

I looked from Konstantin to the master vampire. “What’s going on? Am I dying?”

“You’re not dying.” Caspian pulled the chair closer to the bed and sat down. “You fought and killed a Lykan.”

“Yes, I mean I never saw one before, naturally, b-but after he transformed, I assumed his species was Lykan and Konstantin confirmed it.”

“They produce a venom which they can release when they bite someone.”

I frowned. “Okay, but Armin didn’t bite me.”

Konstantin jerked the curtain aside loudly and stared into the night. “Not you, but Gideon.”

“Shit! Is the venom dangerous to vampires?” I looked at Caspian.

He pressed his lips together. “Usually a vampire dies a few days after he’s been bitten, even older vampires, especially when they’ve already lost as much blood as Gideon had.”

My stomach muscles tightened. “But Konstantin said he is alive!”

Caspian turned his head and mostly spoke to Konstantin’s back. “He is and to ensure this, I might have done something unforgivable, but I couldn’t let him die.”

I didn’t understand what he was telling me. “Okay—” I looked at Konstantin for answers, but he was still watching the night, his body a coiled spring ready to snap.

“You saw him in that cage, the diamonds woven into his hair, the rubies, the leather pants.” Caspian squeezed my hand so much it hurt. “That was Angel,” he spat. “The being Armin created. Do you understand what he did to Gideon to become that creature? What he endured? Not only the cage fights but--”

I swallowed. “I saw Sapphire in her cage. I-I heard how people talked about her. They bid for her. I also heard them mentioning Angel, and that she’d never reach his class.”

Caspian stared at a place over my shoulder. “I received a report about a rogue vampire hiding in an abandoned house that belonged to us. Usually, I’d send soldiers out to investigate, but that night I felt restless, and I accompanied them. We found a young vampire, three to five years old, starved, half-crazy, and filthy. I should have granted him a merciful second death. Instead, I brought him to the clan house, gave him a room, clean clothes, and sent a donor to him.”

He ran his hand repeatedly through his hair. “It took him some time to trust us, until he was able to tell me a small portion of his story — he escaped from a pit after he discovered his shadow melder gift. It turned out that the very idea of killing his tormentors was the force that drove Gideon and made him not give up after his escape.

“Pits were, at that time, a great problem for us. An evil that we and other affected species tried to eradicate through hunts. After we let him take part in these hunts, he finally became a true member of the clan. We never found the Lykan who was his pit master though.

“When I made Gideon my legate, I was so certain his thirst for vengeance was behind him.” He briefly closed his eyes. “I erred. I wasn’t aware of how deep those wounds ran. They never healed.”

Listening to Caspian, I understood how much Gideon meant to him. “He’s kinda your adopted childe, though you didn’t turn him.”

Caspian clasped my hand and touched the knuckles with his forehead. “I knew you would understand.” He looked at Konstantin. “He was ready to go, but I was not ready to let him.” His voice broke. “I couldn’t —”

Konstantin growled lowly. “You risked my One Childe’s life so that your adopted childe could live. You didn’t care that Kavan might die from the venom after you forced him to drink Gideon’s blood.”

My eyes widened. I couldn’t believe what I just heard. “It was Gideon’s blood I drank? Why?”

Konstantin wasn’t done ranting. “Your adopted childe lives at the expense of Kavan’s health.” He finally turned around. “And knowing Gideon now, he won’t agree to the price you paid for his life. As you said, he was ready to accept his second death.”

Caspian caught his legate‘s eye. “You might be right.” He turned to me. “You saved him.”

“Me? How? Why did you make me drink his blood?”

No one answered my questions. Their silence felt as if each was trying to push the other to speak up, to explain.

I slammed my hands on the mattress. “Could one of you finally tell me what the fuck is going on?”

Caspian locked our gazes. “When I realized Gideon had been bitten, I knew he would die unless—”

I had enough. “Unless?” I yelled.

“Unless he would drink large amounts of his blood song’s blood.”

Another fucking cryptic answer. “Why?”

“The blood of one’s blood song has great healing capacity, only his blood could counter the venom.”

I crossed my arms before my chest. “Yeah, but he doesn’t have a blood song.”

“In theory, we all have blood songs.”

It was so difficult to stay calm. “Okay, but he hasn’t met them, right?”

Caspian averted his eyes. “Actually, I found him several weeks ago.”

Konstantin stepped closer. “You found him? You can find another vampire’s blood song? I never heard of this particular gift.”

Caspian hesitated before he answered. “It’s one of my enhanced gifts.”

Konstantin slowly repeated. “One-of-your-enhanced-gifts?”

I needed longer than Konstantin until I understood what Caspian had meant by enhanced gift. Apparently, he could boost his vampire gifts by chromatic witchcraft.

“I can see their blood sing. It’s a beautiful sight, even if they’re still not harmonized.”

Caspian smiled. “Gideon couldn’t stop talking about Kavan or,” he chuckled, “ranting about him. It was unusual behavior for him, and I had an idea. Sometimes blood songs clash in the beginning until their song is harmonized and their bond is complete. I decided to test my theory. I boosted one of my gifts, the gift that allows me to see other vampires’ powers, to be exact. You knew about it, and we have to talk about how you both are able to hide some of your gifts from me.” He lifted his left eyebrow and fixed his gaze on me. “Being a shadow dancer, for example.”

I cringed and waited for Konstantin to say something, anything. He didn’t.

Finally, I got what they were talking about. “I’m Gideon’s blood song? That’s total bullshit. Blood songs are supposed to like, to crave each other’s blood.” I remembered clearly how he refused to drink my blood, even though he was gravely injured and in dire need of blood. “He pushed me away after you dragged me over to him. He seemed genuinely appalled by my blood.” I could still see his expression; his blatant aversion had hurt.

“He wasn’t appalled— he feared drinking your blood would initiate the bond.”

“What? He knew it too?”

“He suspected it.”

“Why?” I felt like an idiot for constantly asking What-Why-How.

“The fact he couldn’t coerce you to open the door, for one.”

“What about that?”

“Even the most powerful vampires can’t force their blood song to do something they don’t want to do.”

“I might just have a strong mind.”

Caspian chuckled. “Unlikely, you are young, and he is several centuries old.”

“So, he can’t make me do anything I don’t want to?”

“At least not by his mental powers, no.”

“But he could kill me?”

Caspian frowned. “Why would he want to do this?”

I shrugged. “To get rid of me.”

“Your blood song is your heart! Would you kill your heart?”

“To prevent evil, yes.”

I pulled my hand away from Caspian’s grip. “Gideon didn’t want my blood, so much so he’d rather die.” The thought was suddenly difficult to bear.

“There was no other way to save him. I’m sorry, Kavan.”

“It’s okay.” I waved my hand, trying for indifference. “What happens now? How can we remedy this? How are we going to sever this bond?”

“Even though the bond is incomplete, the two parts that already exist can’t be severed. Only by one of you dying.”

“Okay, how can we avoid completing the bond?”

Caspian’s form crumpled right in front of me. “Your blood isn’t harmonized. For this to happen, you have to live close to each other. Avoid seeing him. The last step is to exchange more essences than blood.”

“More essences?” Then I got it. Essence was yet another glorified vampire euphemism, this time maybe for saliva and or semen even. “Well, this is easy. Rest assured no essence exchange will happen, ever. This bond will never be completed.”

After Doc confirmed the venom was mostly gone from my system, I returned to Rylan’s and my apartment, where my brothers were already waiting for me.

Nathan fiercely hugged me and whispered into my ear, “Don’t you ever do something like this ever again.”

“At least not without taking me with you,” Rylan growled, squeezing my shoulders hard.

Nathan insisted on staying with us for an entire day pampering me, heating broth, and hunting down my favorite blood. I loved them, but after a while I got tired of their hovering and sent Ry to train with his guard guys, and Nathan to work in the lab, after promising them several times to take it easy.

Only, I still wasn’t alone. He waited outside the door for a while, but I wasn’t ready to meet him.

“Kavan come on, open the door.”

At first, I didn’t recognize him. “You cut your hair.”

Gideon ran his hand over the new white-blond crew cut. “Yeah.” It wasn’t the only significant alteration. He went through a complete makeover: no pieces of jewelry, no fancy clothes, but a scuffed grey military jacket over a tight dark green t-shirt, loose faded blue jeans, and instead of posh oxford wingtips, heavy work boots.

“I’m here to tell you not to worry.”

“Worry about?” I took a step back and opened the door wider for him to come in.

Only he didn’t. “About being my blood song or me being yours. I’m leaving the clan.”

For the first time, I noticed the backpack standing by his feet.

I frowned. “Isn’t that reaction a bit extreme?”

“What Master Caspian did was wrong. He should have let me go.” He looked out of the window. “I’m broken, Kavan.” He bent down, took my face in both hands, and kissed my forehead. “Farewell. If you can find it in yourself, forgive Master Caspian; he acted out of love. Be the best cat burglar for him you can be.” Then he grabbed the backpack, turned around, and left without looking back.

Frozen to the spot, I watched the door to the stairway close behind him. I was relieved, problem solved.

Be the best cat burglar you can be. I had forgiven Caspian as soon as he’d explained his reasons. My sire, however, was still far removed from forgiveness. Their relationship was strained, at best. Konstantin had taken over Gideon’s duties, except for training me and stealing precious gems for Master Caspian.

Every day I went through the training parkour again and again with all the traps switched on. Really annoying was that I heard Gideon’s voice in my mind all the time. Sometimes he chastised me for being careless or impatient, and a very few times he even praised me.

After everything became too easy, I needed new, more difficult spells. The problem was, Caspian cast them in the trap room at Gideon’s apartment. I asked him to use another place, but he said it would be too arduous to install a spell room at a different place. Gideon’s apartment had special safety devices, and to implement those somewhere else was time-consuming.

The first time I entered his place without him being there, I felt like an intruder; it was wrong. I didn’t expect it to look different from the times he’d been living there, until I saw the cabinets that held his jewelry. Someone had taken a bat, or something similarly blunt, and smashed the glass. The jewelry was still mixed with the glass shards. I was shocked.

The chair and ottoman were still waiting for him to sit down to enjoy the view or relax by the fire, only he would never come back. It made me sad, just a little. Caspian missed him.

It took me months to come out of the newly-revised room unscathed, but I made it work. While I hopped over vivid green puddles, bent under vibrating beams, and squeezed myself between multicolored columns, I talked to him, asked him questions, and increasingly cursed him for abandoning ship, me.

Next, I learned everything about different types of lock boxes from one of Emil’s men and studied alarm systems and whatnot. I tried to be the best cat burglar I could for Master Caspian, as I had promised Gideon in my mind.

It was time to test my abilities. My first heist turned out to be somewhat anticlimactic. I lifted a beautiful topaz from a witch who, according to Caspian, betrayed his mother and stole it from her.

The most difficult part was getting to the place she lived, right on top of a bald hill across the entire country. Konstantin insisted on coming with me. He stood guard outside the house the entire time to be able to step in and save-support-aka rescue me if the need occurred. I think he was more nervous than me to be honest.

It felt wrong doing this without Gideon, my mentor. I wanted to talk to him, get his opinion on how I did, and discuss what I could have done better, but he chose to piss off, the fucker.

The rest of the time I spent training with Rylan and his group and tried calming down Konstantin so he would finally forgive Master Caspian. After he finally admitted he might have done the same if it had been me who was going to die, it got better.

The place in front of our large window had become my favorite spot. Instead of a chair and ottoman like Gideon, I bought a huge pillow bean bag thing. Watching the city and/or the fire was soothing, I had to give him that.

Once again, I stared at the horizon, wondering what the Christmas tree who wasn’t even a Christmas tree anymore was doing at that moment, and where he was.

While dark clouds raced over the night sky, I thought about how my life had changed. When the moon briefly made an appearance and illuminated parts of the choppy sea, I realized had changed was the wrong phrase. Had been changed was more correct, by others without asking me.

First, Konstantin turned me into a vampire without asking for my consent. Admittedly it had been an emergency situation, still, I had no say.

Again, Konstantin changed the clan without consulting with me or my brother; he just decided and confronted us with a done deal. Then Caspian initiated my bond to Gideon, fed him my blood without telling me why or asking me, and gave me Gideon’s blood to drink, again without asking for my or Gideon’s consent, making us partially-bonded blood songs. I understood why, but there was a pattern.

And finally, said partial blood song tells me I don’t need to worry and has the audacity to leave without discussing our situation with me but decided for me.

Suddenly, I could barely contain my fury and growled through extended fangs, my claws shredding one of the pillows.

Rylan sat down beside me. “How long?”

I looked at him, narrowing my eyes. “How long what?”

“Until you go after him.”

“After who?”

He rolled his eyes. “After Gideon, your blood song.”

“I won’t go looking for my fucking partial not blood song.”

“That makes no sense, you know that, huh?”

“He simply decided for both of us, now we deal with the outcome.”

“But you miss him.” He passed me a mug with hot crab broth.

“Phew!” For the life of me, I wouldn’t admit that I might want to talk to the asshole sometimes. A little.

Rylan sipped some blood from his mug. “I heard through the clan’s grapevine that he left the country.”

“Hm.”

My brother slapped me upside my head so hard, I almost spilled my broth. “Ow! What did you do that for?”

“For lying to me. By the way, Nathan is coming over.”

“Oh, what makes him leave his beloved lab?”

“You, idiot. We’re worried about you. I mean, we knew you’d be a stubborn shit about this, but it’s enough. I asked Nathan to explain your situation in simple words so even you might understand. Maybe that’ll help. Otherwise, I’ll challenge you to a knife fight.”

I snorted. “Good luck.”

Right on cue, Nathan knocked. After Ry offered him a glass of blood-laced wine, he settled down on my other side. “The fates decide who will or could be your blood song; it’s neither your nor his/her decision. You might never meet, but you met yours. The bond has been initiated by Gideon drinking your blood, maybe even sooner, during all the time he trained you. The third step was completed when you drank his blood. It’s a not-deniable fact that you’re partially bonded and that he is your blood song. What you’ll do with it is your decision alone.”

“No, it’s not. He decided for both of us by leaving the clan.”

Rylan groaned. “Or, he was giving you time, shithead. Instead of playing the defrocked princess,”

Nathan snorted.

“Find out what feels right to you.”

I sipped my too-cold broth and weighed my options. My brothers leaned against me, assuring me of their unwavering support and let me think. “What I want is to talk to him, maybe yell at him for highhandedly taking away my decisions.”

“That sounds way more like our Kavan than this mopey version of you we’ve had to deal with over the past few months, right Nate?” Rylan slurped the last of his wine. “Caspian knows where he is.”

“I’m going to run everything by Kon.”

I knocked on Konstantin’s and Katherine’s condo door. No one answered. When I tried to decide if I’d knock again or wait until the next day, a barely-dressed Katherine ripped the door open. “What do you want?”

I clearly interrupted something. “Erm...I wanted to talk to Konstantin, b-but I can come back later.”

Konstantin passed Katherine a robe. “Nonsense.”

Katherine growled, snatched it out of his hand, and stormed away.

I shuffled my feet. “Look—”

Konstantin waved his hand and opened the door. “Come in.”

I heard the slamming of drawers and doors, then it was silent “I’m really sorry if—”

“I already told you it’s okay. Tell me what’s the matter.”

I scratched the back of my neck. “After talking to my brothers, I’ve decided to look for Gideon. Caspian misses him, and we’re sorta not done. He can’t make lone decisions if it concerns us both.”

Konstantin nodded. “I agree. What do you have in mind?”

“Ry told me Master Caspian knows where Gideon is.”

“His information is good. He sent Van after him. “

“Van?”

Konstantin smiled proudly. “She’s our best tracker.”

“I guess traveling is more complicated as a vampire?”

“Indeed, I’m glad you came to me instead of storming off blindly. Pack light, and don’t forget your weapons. I’ll arrange everything. Come back here in an hour.”

When I returned, Konstantin wasn’t alone. A tall man with wavy dark hair and a neatly trimmed beard stood beside him. “This is Aykut. He will be your day guard.”

“My day guard?” I sniffed as discretely as I could. Wolf.

The man stepped forward. “I will guard you when you sleep, and I will gather necessary information.”

“Okay....” I looked at Konstantin.

“He is an old friend; we worked on many missions together.”

“When do we go?”

Aykut stepped forward. ”As soon as you’re ready.”

I grabbed my backpack. ”Let’s go.”

He smiled approvingly. “We’re going to the airport.”

I hugged Konstantin. ”I’ll call you.”

“You better.”

I followed Aykut down to the parking lot.

I was opening the door to climb into the car when I heard Master Caspian calling my name.

“Kavan!”

I turned around. He was standing by the elevator door, holding a sword in his hand. “Bring him his sword. He’s going to need it.” When I approached, he stepped forward and wrapped me in his arms. “Thank you, Kavan, for going after him.” He gave me a double back-scabbard. “This way you can carry both your swords.” He swallowed. “Bring him back.”

I nodded. “I’ll try.”

Thank you, for reading chapter 13.
Some questions have been answered, some not. *evil cackle*
What do you think? Has the price for Gideon's life been too high?
Comments and reactions are very welcome.
Due to some unforeseeable events, I won't be able to post  chapter fourteen next Sunday. I'm sorry.